I have heard people say that life is a game, to be played like a game. If this is so, what game or games is life like?Why does life seem like a game to some and not to others? Is it because we have
a board, so to say, with rule, and people willing to play? Do we make games to prepare us on what kind of game we want to play in life?

This idea of life being a game envoked my couriosity, soI decided to compare board games to life or the way life is treated by some people. I first got a peice of paper and wrote down all the games
i could think of. Games like monopoly, trouble, life and risk. Then I wrote down some of the differant jobs I could think of. Jobs like president,generals, C.E.O, management and so on. I then wrote
down the rules to each game, as in how to play and win. I then wrote down the rules to the types of jobs i had written down and then tried to see if any of them matched up to either conferm or
dismiss the idea that life is a or like a board game. This is what I found.

I was able to match some games to jobs that people have. I matched the game"world domination"to the highest political offices in the governments in the world. Also the game"warship" to Militery
operations, "Monopalization" to Big Business, The Game of"middle classLife" to the middle class,"sergeon" to the medical field. The funny thing is I found that to be able to play each game the
players had to know what piece they were and or what color they were! So I decided to do a little test to see how people acted and reacted to playing the games by the rules and how they acted and
reacted to the rules being violated.

In the game monopolization, to cheat, on purpose or on accident, by moving someone else's piece, steal from the bank, and set the decks of yellow and orange cards resulted in a loss of money for
the perpatrater. Also if someone playing landed on someone else's property and was not caught and was able to take a turn and land somewhere else, that person was allowed to not have to pay the
money owed. I also found that very quickly two types of players emerge from the game, classes if you will, one type was the people who wanted to play a honest game, and the other type was people
who did not mind the dishonesty and actually enjoyed the hustle in the game. The people who wanted honesty would only play with who they knew as honest. If one dishonest person was found in that
game they were asked to quit, and if they did not, the honest people would quit the game and then start a new game with the honest people they knew. On the other hand, the dishonestgroup would try
to out hustleeach other in differant way, such as, people would work together to bring down the other players who were making the most money. They would also either hide rules unless is pertained
to them, make up rules and sick to them until someone would show them the rules in the rule book. In most of the cases, a outside person would have to be brought in to enforce the written rules to
keep order. The ones brought in to keep order, at some point would become corrupted, and a new person would have to be brought in to replace them. Most of the games that the dishonest group played
ended with someone flipping the board, thus ending the game, while a small amount of the games would be played to the end.

In the game of "world domination", I observed two patterns emerged. One was that many people played the game like politics, as in they would at some point would form "treaties" with other player
and would either break them early in the game do to new treaties that were made with other players or because they thought that they were going to be betrayed, do to the size of the "partner's"
army and or location. Most of the games I watched being played of "world domination, did not end withthe board being flipped, but ended because of greed for power and to be the winner. Some however
did end because they "thought" that someone cheated, when in all actuality no one did! The only cheating that did occur was that someone would add tomany "armies" on their territories. In almost
every game, the amount of betrayal was amazing.

In the game of "middle class LIFE" the players would not cheat, and if someone did cheat, the ones who enjoyed the game would not play with the cheater at all. In a game were the goal is to get a
job, raise a family,get a car, and a house, there was not any room for cheating, and the cheaters were cast out at once.

In the game "destroy your warship", there was almost always room for cheating. False information was the main tool for cheating. One would lie about if or if not a warship was hit by the enemy's
artilary, but was not revealed until the game had ended. And it came to a piont that a outside observer had to be brought in toreportthe truth on who was actaully winning the battles.

Then the last game was the game "sergeon" in which you try to be the best doctor by making the least amount of mistakes. There was no cheating in that game, it all came down to skill of a steady
hand. Any mistake was duely noted.

The thing that I first noticed was the amount of people who wanted to play each of the games. The game that had the most willing particapaters was the "monopilzation" game, then the "world
domination game, then the "warship" game, and with the game of "middle class LIFE" Icould hardly find anybody who really wanted to play that game at all.

Now I started to see something to what people meant by life is like or is a game, but for me I hada few questions I need to find the answer to. One of the question was, "is a game art that is
intimitating life?" Then the other question I asked my self was, "or is a game designed to prepare someone for something?" I then tried to find anything in each game that was simular to each other.
I found that in some the platform was the same, while in others they were not. Some were played in the risk of dice, and others were not. Then it hit me, in each of the game you had piece that
stood for you!!! Then it really hit me, everyone who played these game had some sort of idenity. You could not play any of these game unless you knew what piece you were, and in some cases a color.

I then got an idea, and went and ask my son, who is ten years old, if he could tell me who he was. he told me "I don't know, what do you mean dad?" I then asked him what he wanted to DO when he
grew up, and he said he wanted to BE a soldiers, or a rapper. I then kissed him on the forehead and told him thank you. I said to my self, "my son can not tell me how he is as a person and he wants
to be something that he is not yet, what does that mean?" I then decided to ask my son if we could play a video game together, his choice, and he put in a game called "DragonBall Z", and right away
he pick his guy. Me on the other hand, did not know who was who and was trying to decide on who to pick. Then the funnies thing happened, my son said to me, "dad, we'll never get to play if you
don't pick someone." I aked him why did you pick him?" and he said,"because he's the strongest." He said "I guess." I then asked him who i should be and he told me to pick "Vegeta" because he is
the second best. As we played I noticed that my son was confident and relentless in his attacks. After we played a few matches I asked my son why he had said that he wanted to be a soldier and he
told me he wanted to fight evil. I asked him why he wanted to be a rapper, and he said because he just likes music, I thenasked him why he liked music, and he told me it feels good. Then i asked
him why he picked the guy he picked in the video game, and he said the same reason as before. I asked him if the guy was good or bad, and he told me he was a good guy who stood for justice and
spent his life fighting evil.

To end this story, this is what it all came down to. I still had one more question, and had made two decisions. The question was, are these game designed to instill identity, to mold leaders,
warriors, doctor,business men, the working class, and to weed out the losers? One of the decisions is that whether life is seen as a game or is a game, there is always one thing that is not added
to these board games..... GOD. No matter how people veiw life, God left His rule book. Thank God for Jesus.

And the other thing I decided was..........I need to spend more time with my son!!

Add Your Comments:

Comments

GREAT THESIS TYRONE BUT I HAD THE ANSWERS YOU WERE SEEKING FOR EVER SINCE I WAS EIGHT. MY MOTHER TOLD ME THAT PEOPLE ARE BORN WITH THEIR PERSONALITIES CLENCHED TIGHTLY AROUND THEIR FISTS, THIS I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND UNTIL I WAS SIXTEEN. THIS SIMPLY MEANS THATTHE GAMES IN LIFE ARE JUST THERE TO HELP UNLEASH YOUR HIDDEN PERSONALITY. WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOOD, MONOPOLISTS, HONEST, BAD AND EVIL BY NATURE. NOBIDY TEACHES THESE THINGS AND EVEN IF THEY ARE TAUGHT SOME PEOPLE WILL NEVER BE GOOD SINGERS, BUSINESSMINDED AND E.T.C. THE GAMES ARE JUST THERE TO EXPOSE YOUR IDENTITY AND REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG YOU LEARNED MORE FROM PLAYING GAMES THAN IN DOING ANYTHING ELSE. I GIVE YOU FOUR STARS FOR THIS ONE,
KEEP THEM THINKING AND LIBERATE THEIR MINDS.
KEEP THIS UP.

AuthorReply

Comment | 285 words

Tue, December 12th, 2006 12:02pm

Your right, but what I realized is that, we ARE born with an identity. This identity comes from God. In my Bible, in many places I have found that God, and Jesus calls people the children of God. In Psalm 82:6 God says :I said, 'You are "gods": you are all sons of the Most High.'" God's message seem to be inviting man to believe it. Man just likes to invent their own identity. Look at the most successful people in the world in past and present. The only thing that they had really incommon is that from the day they could understand, they knew who they were, even Jesus. Wether it came in the from of a title(like a family name)or were trained in thinking that they were to have only a certain type of job. I believe that most people go through life never knowing who they are, or never being certain of who the are. I've found that if you don't know who you are, you start to think that you have to have things, (like money, favor, grades,) to get to where you think you need to be,( like schools, job training,etc.), to become what you want to be seen as in life, (like soldier, mayor, doctor, rock star, etc.), were others are taught from a young age that they are already someone, with a destiny or duty to fulfill. Look at the political families for example, of the world. You know what i mean? I realized that knowing who you are makes it a lot easier to reach you destiney then trying to become someone you are not, and then reaching your destiney. What do you think?

I like you Tyrone Slade & I think your son is very lucky to have you for a Dad. Every boy & girl should be so lucky.
I think games have been designed by men. They saw something in life that could be translated into a game.
I don't see life as a game. To win or lose. Most games only have one winner.
I think God put us here to learn or to teach. Or like you, both.

AuthorReply

Comment | 31 words

Sun, December 17th, 2006 10:34pm

Thank you, i believe the same about God, I just find it funny how people take these games into adulthood. Thank you for taking the tyme to read and to comment.

Let me start my comment by saying that I think you are doing a wonderful job raising your son.There aren't a whole bunch of dads out there who take the time to ask their kids "why?" and I think that is the most important job of a parent-understanding your kids.That way, you can relate to them (and vice-versa) when trying to give them guidance and discipline. Second, I'd like to tell you that that was a very good piece that gets the gears in your mind turning. I never thought to look at things that way,but it's true. You do always hear people saying things like "well,that's the way the game is played..." and I never understood that expression...probably because I didn't give it a 2nd thought.It's just one of those common knowledge kind of phrases. Wonderful brain work!!!

AuthorReply

Comment | 35 words

Thu, December 28th, 2006 11:07pm

Thank you for the nice comment about me being a good father. I am glad you seen something good in my work. I thank you for taking the time to read my work and commenting.

I liked the essay. A lot of people say social life is like a game. It is to a great extent. But role playing is rather stupid. We are humans first, and only then this or that. What is important is what we value, think, learn, and how good we are. Like you are a good writer! Very well written, clear essay. Keep writing such stuff on things simple and complex.

AuthorReply

Comment | 54 words

Tue, January 30th, 2007 12:43am

Thank you very much. Role playing is stupid, but also very fun. Some people never want the games to be over. Just like in board games someone always gets their feeling hurt. It is amazing that the people who continue playing these games in life never see how these games make others feel. Tyrone.

it's late at night, and I'm very sleepy--lol---so I will just say--I agree with everything LEBEA, MOTO & amiton say---and add this, being a good Dad is SO important, and the games we play are a part of our lives...very nice story line...